1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to browsing an indexed collection of electronic content. In particular, the invention relates to the display to a user of information identifying a current location within the collection of electronic content as the user browses through the collection of electronic content, and, even more particularly, to the non-visual display of such identifying information.
2. Related Art
The increasing presence of devices for displaying and/or storing electronic content has resulted in an increase in collections of electronic content and the size of collections of electronic content for display and/or storage by those devices. A collection of electronic content can include audio electronic content (e.g., MP3 recordings, voicemail, computer-generated audio files in formats such as .wav or .aiff, audio books), visual electronic content (e.g., digital photographs, .gif files, jpeg files), audiovisual electronic content (e.g., DVD recordings), and/or text electronic content (phone or address lists, electronic mail, Web pages, favorites lists).
Browsing a large collection of electronic content can be tedious or difficult. Current approaches to facilitating browsing of a collection of electronic content use a visual interface. The use of a visual interface for browsing a collection of electronic content can be desirable for some applications. For example, a visual interface can be useful when used with devices that are stationary and/or large, or when the user can devote a large amount of attention to use of the interface, as is often the case in home and office applications, in which the interface is frequently used in conjunction with a television or personal computer. However, the characteristics of a visual interface can make the use of a visual interface for browsing a collection of electronic content undesirable for some applications. For example, a visual interface can require an undesirably large amount of attention (e.g., more attention than can safely be expended if the user is walking or driving, or more attention than a user engaged in another activity may want to expend), consume an undesirably large amount of power (e.g., require an undesirably large power supply), and/or be difficult to view and/or use if implemented in small display apparatus. A visual interface demands the visual attention of the user. If the user is using a visual interface to browse electronic content, the visual interface can compete with the user's understanding, enjoyment or comprehension of the electronic content. The use of a portable electronic device is an example of an application for which the use of a visual interface to enable browsing of a collection of electronic content can be undesirable, since such a device is typically small (which may make the use of a sufficiently large display apparatus and/or power supply impossible or impractical) and is often intended for use in situations in which, or in a manner such that, the user's attention may or must be focused other than on the portable electronic device (e.g., a hand-held cell phone is often used in such situations).
A previous interface for use with a cell phone has been used to browse an electronic telephone list that is sorted alphabetically by the name of a person or entity associated with each phone number in the list. A slider control is used to scroll through the list. A visual interface displays information identifying a location in the list during scrolling. The granularity of the visual display is controlled in accordance with the amount of pressure applied to the slider control during scrolling. Lightly pressing the slider control causes the full name associated with each phone number to be displayed during scrolling, while pressing the slider control harder causes only the initial letter(s) of each name to be displayed during scrolling. This interface suffers from the limitations of a visual interface discussed above.
Some MP3 players (e.g., Diamond RIO) use large dials to enable selection of audio tracks discretely. However, there is no display of high-level track identifying information to facilitate browsing and the rate of advance through the tracks is at a fixed rate, tied to the resolution of the encoder wheel, potentiometer and/or mechanical stops of the player.
Some home audio equipment and cell phones have included an encoder wheel that is used as an adjunct to a visual display, enabling a user to scroll through a list of audio tracks, names or menu items, or to adjust volume. A haptic interface provides haptic feedback during scrolling. However, the haptic feedback is provide at fixed intervals unrelated to the collection of electronic content being scrolled through, so that the haptic feedback does not facilitate browsing of the content based on an identification of individual records within the collection of electronic content. The rate of scrolling or adjustment cannot be varied.
Previously, hand-held dials or other user input interface mechanisms have been used to fast-forward through a collection of electronic content. However, since these mechanisms are not used to display index terms, but, rather, all of the electronic content (albeit at a rapid rate), the utility of such mechanisms in browsing a collection of electronic content is limited and, in any event, inferior to an interface which displays index terms during browsing.